This field contains the name of the colony for which the Patriot served. Sometimes this field lists the name of more than one colony. For instance, Henry Dorton/Dalton was drafted into service for Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland.

Alternate Names

This field contains variant spellings of first and last names, and also alias names. Many soldiers served their military service under one name and used a different name after their service ended. This field may also contain a short description of the Patriot if the first and last names are unknown.

Service Type

Here are listed the various military services, as well as nonmilitary service. Men and women aided American independence in more ways than serving in the military. They also supplied goods, served as scouts and guides, were paid for carpentry and blacksmithing, worked in the lead mines and iron forges, and were servants, waiters, cooks, etc. The drop down box in the search box for the Service Type field shows all the different service descriptions currently found in the database.

Complexion Description

Physical descriptions usually refer to complexion and sometimes life situations, not ethnicity. Examples of complexion descriptions are black, mulatto, colored, or yellow, and a life situation example would be someone referred to as a slave. Occasionally, ethnic descriptions such as Indian, Negro, East Indian, African, etc. appear in the records. The drop down menu in the search box for the Complexion field shows all the different complexion descriptions currently found in the database.

Pension Application State

This field contains information if the Patriot applied for a state pension. Since this project rarely had access to a state pension application file, this field contains the word "maybe" when the pensioner could not be verified as the Patriot of interest.

Verified

A verified Patriot is one for whom service and complexion were established with confidence based on an original record or a transcription of an original record. An unverified Patriot is one for whom either service or complexion could not be established with confidence from an original record or a transcription of an original record. Names may be unverified for a number of reasons, including differing complexion identifications by different researchers or confusion between Patriots with the same names (one of color, the other white) in published works.

The Patriots of Color Database

From the very beginning to the end of the Revolutionary War, men and women of color fought for American independence as soldiers, seamen, wagoners, skilled craftsmen, servants, laborers, etc. Revealing their identities and individual stories is the goal of our research efforts.

The database on this web site is a summary of a portion of the information so far collected for each Patriot. This is the beginning of an extensive project, and we wanted to make these data available at the outset to encourage more research and scholarship.

Funding for research was provided by Richard Gilder, James Basker and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Joseph Dooley and the Sons of the American Revolution, David Roux, and the W. E. B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

The Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The W.E.B. DuBois Institute sponsors the research and publishing of this database.

Jane E. Ailes

Independent Researcher

Jane Ailes is an independent researcher living in Virginia. She and her team of assistants researched and compiled the Patriots of Color Database.